The Chicago Field Museum is offering early retirement packages for some of its employees. The museum, best known for its plant and animal research and Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex, is shouldering a heavy debt burden and has been trying to find ways to cut back.

The first thing you see upon entering the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s new exhibit on food is a 19th century hand plow, its modesty a bit disarming as the climax of a walk-up whose walls are splashed with projections of grain nodding majestically in the wind.

President Barack Obama visited Argonne National Laboratory Friday, calling on Congress to flag oil and gas money for research that could help wean the nation’s vehicles off oil. He also addressed critical budget cuts to basic scientific research.

So far there is no high-volume fracking in Illinois, but the House Speaker’s proposal pre-empts the passage of a regulatory bill that would set up a permitting process and potentially permit drilling in a matter of months.